


Help Me Like You’d Hold Me Forever

by binniebun (princeseokjin)



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Beomgyu has a fractured leg, Confessions, Cuddling, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Forehead Kisses, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Non-Idol AU, Rated T for language, Soobin is his designated caretaker, Soogyu are roommates, Whipped Choi Beomgyu, Whipped Choi Soobin, lots of bickering, my first gift fic!, txt share a dorm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28192671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princeseokjin/pseuds/binniebun
Summary: Oblivious idiots plus mutual pining plus bickering roommates equals a real-time unfolding of a badly-written romcom in front of third party spectators.Or, Soobin takes care of his injured crush and roommate, they bicker a lot, and they kiss foreheads to prove a point.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Choi Soobin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 119
Collections: TXT Secret Santa Fic Fest 2020





	Help Me Like You’d Hold Me Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heistpost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heistpost/gifts).



> Title taken from a line of the song “It’s OK If You Forget Me” by Astrid S
> 
> but that’s all the have in common! this fic is far from that song’s mood ^^.

The sun shines softly behind curtains, the birds chirp pleasantly outside, and Soobin feels warm and cozy under his blanket.

Today’s a great day; no class, no part-time job. Just sleeping in and lazing around the dorms all day.

 _Nothing can ruin this day for me,_ Soobin decides, slowly drifting off into dreamland.

Before he can, however, his alarm clock starts pecking at his head.

You read that right, pecking.

Before irrational thoughts of throwing the distraction to his perfect day out the window influence his actions, he peeks one eye open to lock eyes with two beady ones.

“Pabo-ya!”

That’s right; his alarm clock is his roommate’s insufferable pet.

“Morning Toto,” Soobin groans, wishing the bird never learned to call him like that.

Toto just pecks him one last time as a greeting, before flying off to the other side of the room.

On the other side of the room, where his roommate sleeps as peacefully as he wished he was sleeping right now. His left leg, in a cast, is propped up by a small stack of pillows to keep it elevated.

You’d think his roommate, the one and only Choi Beomgyu, star player of their university’s soccer team, would injure his leg from a sports-related activity. But alas, none of that was involved that currently confined his leg to the cast.

He fell off of his bike after a nasty sharp turn around a corner. 

Fortunately, there was little to no traffic and he tumbled down on the right side of the road. 

Fortunately, it was a minor fracture. 

Unfortunately, he had to wear the cast for a good two months, depending on how fast his body repaired the broken bone.

A month has passed since then, and recent checkups insists the cast stays for another month.

Soobin winces. He forgot had to make sure the other took his medicine three times a day. 

_So much for a perfect day._

And Soobin promptly slaps himself for having such selfish thoughts.

He slowly gets up against the protest of his body to continue resting. Cold tiles bite at his bare toes as he locates his slippers, and he pads off to Beomgyu’s side of the room. He tries fixing his hair currently sticking out in all directions, but gives up after feeling too many tangles in them.

Reaching the foot of the bed, Soobin gently leads Toto from his perch to his hand. Carefully, he brings the bird to the crown of Beomgyu’s head. The other remains fast asleep the whole time. Toto looks up curiously at Soobin, as if waiting for further instructions.

Soobin smirks and gives a familiar signal.

And like earlier, Toto begins pecking at Beomgyu’s head.

Beomgyu thinks he had an ace up his sleeve when he trained Toto to wake Soobin up everyday, when he forgot he trained his pet to do all his tricks on Soobin himself.

As intended, Beomgyu wakes up at the disruption, but decidedly calmer than Soobin as he uses an index finger to stroke Toto’s feathers when he opens his eyes.

They zero in on the other person in the room and promptly glares the meanest glare he could muster with faint traces of sleep still glazing his eyes.

To Soobin’s eyes, sadly, he just looks like a baby cub with soft, brown eyes, unruly curls of hair, and pretty eyelashes fluttering the sleep away from his features.

“I hate you,” Beomgyu huffs, pouting at the other for disrupting his sleep.

“Good morning to you too, Beomie,” he answers back cheerfully, dimples poking out as he smiles.

Beomgyu huffs some more, but gets up to place Toto back on his perch, but not before giving his beak a kiss.

Soobin just fake gags at the display of affection, and Beomgyu just rolls his eyes at him.

“Well, shall we get going? Your medication awaits,” Soobin says with mock formality, like a servant to his master.

Unlike his usual complacent replies, Beomgyu decides to be stubborn that day.

“No.”

“No?”

“No,” Beomgyu says with finality, closing his eyes.

“Alright, suit yourself,” Soobin says as he shrugs.

“Good, now let me go back to-”

He gets cut off as he feels arms hook around his back and thighs. Soobin gently lifts up the younger, taking care to avoid applying pressure to the injured leg. Once he’s done that, he brings Beomgyu to his chest, and they make their way downstairs, making sure the boy in his arms doesn’t hit anything along the way. He pointedly ignores the stutters and squawks of protest coming from the other boy.

It may not have been the first time Soobin has carried him this way due to laziness on both ends, but it never fails to set Beomgyu’s cheeks ablaze.

It feels warm.

His mind (un)helpfully supplies to him that he’s always warm when he’s near Soobin.

Now he’s definitely sure his face is on fire now.

* * *

Their dorm mates, on the other hand, do not bat a single eyelash at this display. 

Beomgyu and Soobin share a small community dorm off-campus with three other people who all met last year. They had different majors and a few age gaps, but they had surprisingly good schedules that made it convenient for them to hang out from time to time, making them all close friends.

Which is why the most diligent out of all of them, pre-med student Taehyun, did not flinch nor even look up at his anatomy notes as he shuffled his things on the dining table to give room to the two roommates. 

Across the room where the other two, dance major Yeonjun and broadcasting major Hueningkai, sat on the sofa, did not bother acknowledging their presence with their eyes still glued to the screen of their laptop and phone, respectively.

* * *

When all four of them worriedly visited Beomgyu in the hospital when he was confined there for a week, they had discussed arrangements and whatnot for when the latter would be discharged. 

Thankfully, most of his instructors in the general education department understood his plight and allowed him to submit activities and projects via email, however, he was strongly encouraged (read: required) to take graded assessments offline. 

Beomgyu had been given a food plan and medications he needed to take three times a day for two months. Since he wasn’t allowed to apply any sort of pressure to his leg, he needed assistance in getting from one place to another and even doing everyday routine like getting ready and taking baths.

And sure, the hospital had given them a wheelchair so any of them could easily take him anywhere on campus, Beomgyu’s parents footed the bill for a special food service for him, and any of them could take some time off their schedule to help Beomgyu in his daily life, but someone needed to be his full-time caretaker for at least two months.

Given his background, you would’ve thought they would give the role to Taehyun, but the dorm mates ruled him out first.

“Not only does he have no patience,” Beomgyu points out, chewing through an apple slice, “He’d no doubt use me as his human reference to study and not give me any rest.”

Oh how Taehyun wished he knew how to do telekinesis and break a finger for that. He settled on threatening to release Toto out his window instead until the older apologized.

Yeonjun, as nice and cool as he is, was a similar soul to Beomgyu in the sense that he’d probably cause all sort of trouble with the younger even if he was confined to a wheelchair. So, for everyone’s sake and to minimize any future heart attacks due to wheelchair-related accidents, Yeonjun had to be ruled out as well.

Hueningkai, while responsible and reasonably patient, was also taken off the list by everyone saying that he’d be taken advantage of by the older.

Beomgyu tsk-ed at the wasted opportunity, and if looks could kill, Beomgyu would be long gone with three pairs of eyes glaring daggers at him.

So, in hindsight, it was a no-brainer to assign that position to one Choi Soobin without further ado, ignoring the protests from the person in question.

Like Beomgyu, Soobin was also in the general education department, albeit a year higher. Meaning, it was easier for Beomgyu to do what he needed to at school if Soobin led him around. Yeonjun also pointed out that Soobin could use the faculty-only elevator since he would be Beomgyu’s errand- I mean, caretaker, which beats taking the stairs any day.

And well, they’re roommates. If they’re already sick of seeing each other every day, what’s the difference if they’re around each other more?

Besides, the trio would later discuss when the two roommates were busy bickering on the way home after Beomgyu was discharged, it was easier this way. They’re giving Soobin an opportunity to be all caring and sappy at his crush to his heart’s content, even if he hides it with fake complaints of Beomgyu being too demanding but doing everything he asked for anyway. If they’re lucky, Beomgyu and his limited braincells might actually connect the dots that _his_ crush liked him back and finally make a move.

And maybe, just maybe, the two boys would finally get together and free their dorm mates from the constant gushing they get from one boy about the other on numerous separate occasions.

Oblivious idiots plus mutual pining plus bickering roommates equals a real-time unfolding of a badly-written romcom in front of third party spectators. 

As this was a very painful and frustrating thing to witness, it was a win-win situation for everyone involved, if anything.

* * *

So when Soobin plopped the injured male down on one of the chairs and proceeded to spoon feed him because the younger was still red, yet upset about being woken up against his wishes, it still baffles Taehyun more than the process of action potential that these two were still not dating.

He has half a mind to ask them right then and there, but keeps to himself because he does not want to deal with the aftermath.

“Good morning, hyungs,” he says instead, pointedly ignoring the heart eyes Soobin is shooting out while Beomgyu has his eyes closed.

“Morning Hyunnie,” Beomgyu says as his eyes open to glare at the skeletal system plastered on his book.

“You got classes today?” the older asks with toast in his mouth, which Soobin scolds him over. He tries to annoy him even more by opening his mouth wider, which pompts the taller to clamp it shut.

Taehyun just sighs internally at the interaction.

“In a few hours, yeah,” he replies, checking the time on his phone.

“Omg can you help with Biology then? I have a test in the afternoon,” Beomgyu pleads, puppy eyes on full display. 

“Can’t you ask Soobin-hyung for help? You’re from the same major,” he points out, eyes flickering to the older.

“Hyung hates Biology,” Beomgyu supplies helpfully.

“Well you can’t blame me- wait a minute,” Soobin cuts himself off, looking at the other incredulously. “You have a test today and didn’t tell me?”

“Oopsie,” Beomgyu only says, mimicking the anime girl winking with his tongue sticking out as he hits his head.

“I’m gonna drown you in the shower later,” Soobin mutters under his breath.

“Try me bitch,” the younger challenges.

All within a second, Taehyun has processed that his options were: 1) let them bicker and watch them make a mess on the dining table again, or 2) tease them so they shut up effectively.

Obviously, he chose option 2, because there was no way he’s risking the possibility of eggs staining his books.

"Hyungs," Taehyun warns, making the two boys stop bickering look at him.

"Please take your lovers' quarrel somewhere else and let me study."

The two blush furiously, and from where he's seated, Taehyun can see Yeonjun and Hueningkai trying to stifle their laughter.

"R-right!" Soobin says after snapping out of his stupefied state. "Let's go get you changed, Beom."

Beomgyu silently climbs onto the older's back and gets carried back to the second floor without protest.

The three boys left on the first floor look at each other and share a collective sigh.

* * *

"I hate your guts so much," Beomgyu huffs, as he's being pushed in his wheelchair by Soobin across the campus.

They're running late, and so the older was forced to wear his rollerblades to make the afternoon test the younger needed to take.

"Oh, _you're_ the one that hates my guts? When you're the one that took 30 minutes to choose what to wear? Then I hope you dream about the cabbage monster in your sleep!" Soobin spits back, narrowly missing a huge rock on the street and probably fling the younger out of his seat at the impact.

Now he wished he hadn't missed.

"Excuse me, #1 hoodie enthusiast, unlike _some_ people, it's an absolute necessity for us to dress for the sake of fashion," he retorts, feeling the wind course through his hair at the speed they're going.

Beomgyu shudders, unsure whether it's from the wind or the possibility of meeting the cabbage monster from a kid's commercial they had watched in his dreams.

Soobin just blows cool air at the younger’s neck, focusing on covering the distance from the dorms to their building in five minutes. Beomgyu shudders again and glares at the other as he turns around.

"But hyung," the younger starts. "Are you sure we're gonna get to the General Education building in one piece? I haven't seen you rollerskate since last year.”

The older had to learn to use rollerblades for a sucky waiter job at a 90’s restaurant. Then he quit because the damages he caused from breaking too much glass and spilling too much food was taking up too much of his salary to be worth the job.

So yes, you can understand the concern Beomgyu felt towards the continuation of life right then and there.

“We’re completely fine. I even gave you extra padding. Now face forward or I’ll lose- TREE!” Soobin suddenly shouts.

“Lose tree?” Beomgyu asked, whipping his head back forward, and his eyes zero in on the huge tree not less than 5 meters away.

“TREE!”

This was it.

Beomgyu’s dramatic brain has concluded this is how Beomgyu was going to die.

His only regret was not getting a chance to confess to his roommate.

His Soobin hyung, who took great care of him, who sang him sweet lullabies when he was homesick, who he was closer with than any other person his age.

Beomgyu just prays that the older survives.

And then, Soobin finally pulls the breaks and Beomgyu sinks further into his seat, bracing for impact.

When they skid to a halt, Beomgyu slowly flutters his eyes open, in disbelief that he’s still alive. He finds himself face-to-face with an out of breath Soobin, so close he can feel the older’s pants blowing at his bangs and tickling his forehead. Soobin’s cheeks were flaring red from both the cold and adrenaline.

(And maybe from the proximity, Beomgyu absently imagines.)

He realizes the wheelchair was tilted up, probably from Soobin’s intense grip on the handles. The bottom part was resting on the trunk of the tree, which would have hit the younger’s legs if he wasn’t tilted up.

The wheelchair is in one piece. Beomgyu is safe. Soobin saved him.

Beomgyu lets out the breath he was holding and watches it sway in the older’s fringe.

He smiles wide, eyes crinkling, and Soobin’s heart does a backflip.

“That was fun!”

Soobin looks at him like he’s insane, heaving. But finds himself laughing despite himself.

“You’re crazy.”

“ _You’re_ the one who almost made us crash into a tree!” 

“I got distracted for a second!” 

_Distracted by what,_ he dares wonder.

Soobin’s head snickers at him for even wondering.

 _Because Beomgyu’s pretty hazel brown eyes shone too prettily under the sunlight and you were too busy admiring it, you whipped dumbass._

“Can we do it again?” Beomgyu’s pretty eyes are sparkling back at him again.

“No-“

“Yes!”

“No! I don’t want to see my life flash before my eyes again,” Soobin says with finality, like any sane person when asked to risk their lives for a second time.

“Party pooper,” Beomgyu deflates, pouting.

Soobin wishes to kiss it away, but since he was not thinking straight and still high on adrenaline, he settles for kissing his forehead instead.

He doesn’t even wait for the younger’s reaction before setting the wheelchair down on solid ground.

“Let’s go _slower_ this time, okay? I don’t want to tell Mr. Jeon the reason you missed a test was because you almost got into another accident.”

Soobin pats himself on the back for his voice not wavering in the slightest.

“F-fine,” the younger replies, and the older hopes he wasn’t stuttering because of him.

As Soobin skates them to their destination, he fails to see Beomgyu’s face and ears turn an alarming shade of red.

* * *

Following the rollerblades incident, the two both internally decided to pretend the forehead kiss didn’t happen until the other brought it up. Which didn’t happen, since they both also decided to dance around their feelings like the helplessly in love idiots that they are.

But that didn’t mean Soobin stopped coddling him, far from that. He was still protective and caring as ever, but kept his distance. He even stopped doing the princess carry on him altogether.

As embarrassing as they were, Beomgyu still missed them, okay?

“All that and you didn’t have the guts to even ask what the kiss was for?” Hueningkai looks at Beomgyu with disbelieving eyes.

The younger volunteered to keep the brunet company while Soobin was away for his Friday classes.

Speaking of Friday, it was also the last day before Beomgyu’s cast was going to be taken off.

Time really flies.

“I can’t find the right timing okay?” Beomgyu groans, staring absently at the bear Soobin doodled onto his cast.

“He’s literally around you during all of his free time,” Hueningkai deadpans, tossing away his sheet music to poke at Toto’s beak, which earns him a happy croon from the bird.

“My heart isn’t ready! I feel like I’m asking for too much here. Would you accept the confession of the injured boy you had to take care of and ruined the past two months for you?” he babbles on, which earns him a fairly strong karate chop to the head.

“And I’m asking you would any sane person put up with your demanding, whiny ass 24/7 for two months simply because he’s obligated to?”

Beomgyu grumbles something about speaking informally to your elders, but doesn’t say anything else.

“Hyungie, Soobin-hyung has gone over and beyond being your caretaker. You know him. If there was an easy, effortless way to do something, he’d choose it with no hesitation,” Hueningkai says, and Beomgyu can’t help but agree. 

“But not with you.”

Something stirs and starts to bloom in Beomgyu’ heart. 

“The very same hyung that couldn’t be bothered to wake up early will do it for you and lug you anywhere without a second thought. He complains sometimes, sure, but he’ll do anything you ask as long as he knows it’ll make you feel less bummed about your leg. You might not see it, but he does the extra effort to make you laugh more for these past few months. Especially after hearing from your teammates about the practices games you missed.”

Beomgyu’s eyes widened at the last sentence.

“And I know you’re not _that_ blind to not notice the way he smiles when you laugh,” the younger raises an eyebrow at him, as if asking to challenge his observations.

It’s true.

His mind looks back at the expression Soobin had let out after the crash when he smiled so wide at him.

 _“You’re crazy.”_

 _Crazily in love with you,_ Beomgyu had thought back then, losing himself with the way his dimples peeked out and framed his lips when he smiled.

The fog surrounding Beomgyu’s mind disappeared and his thoughts became clearer and clearer.

“So you’re telling me,” the older starts, looking back at the younger with hopeful eyes. “All this time, Soobin-hyung likes me so much to make him work harder than he’s supposed to for the past two months?”

The glimmer in Hueningkai’s eyes doesn’t betray him in the slightest.

“Took you long enough.”

* * *

That night, Soobin was on the floor busy preparing what Beomgyu needed at the hospital tomorrow when the latter called out to him.

“Hyung?”

“Yeah?” he asks as he pops his head up.

“Come over for a sec.”

Soobin gets up to stand at the side of the younger’s bed.

Beomgyu stretches his hands out.

“Come cuddle?”

Soobin’s face reddens at the request, but coughs into his hand to cover it.

They used to do this a lot, when one of them missed home or had a rough day. But not recently, not when Soobin was scared it could hurt him and his affection for the other grew intensely for the past eight weeks.

He doesn’t know if can keep a straight face this time.

“But your leg…” the older reasons, to which Beomgyu shakes his head and pleads with his puppy-like eyes.

Soobin feels his heart melt into a puddle right then and there.

“Please?”

Soobin sighs and wills himself to keep it together.

“Just this once, you clingy baby.”

Beomgyu just whoops in happiness and the other can’t help but smile.

Soobin carefully climbs onto the bed in a half-sitting position so he doesn’t accidentally brush against the injured leg. Beomgyu wraps his arms around his waist and rests his head against his chest, sighing contentedly.

Soobin missed doing this. He absently runs his hand against the younger’s brown hair like he always did.

Beomgyu makes a pleased noise at that, and Soobin lets out a small laugh because the other missed this too.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Soobin breaks it.

“Are you nervous for tomorrow?”

Beomgyu hums in negation.

“I wanted to wait until my cast was off, but I couldn’t when you came back all tired and shit. Thank you for taking care of me for the past two months, hyung,” the younger mumbles into his chest.

 _God, he’s too cute,_ Soobin thinks as he wraps his hands around Beomgyu’s shoulders and presses a soft, secretive kiss at his hair.

“You’re welcome, Beomie. Anything for you.”

Beomgyu tilts his head up to look at the older in the eye.

“I mean it! You’ve done so much for me and my demanding ass without question and all I can offer you are hugs,” the younger says with his eyebrows all furrowed and cute in Soobin’s vision.

“Hey now,” Soobin reprimands as he rubs the creases on his forehead away. “Even if I complain when you get a bit fussy, you know I’m just teasing you right? I can imagine having broken bones suck, and I know you’d do the same thing for me if I ever got injured. Don’t ever be sorry for getting hurt. Besides, your leg is almost as good as new now! I’m happy for you,” Soobin says sincerely, clunking their foreheads together in the hopes of getting his point across the younger’s head.

Beomgyu’s breath hitches at the proximity but peers at Soobin carefully through his long eyelashes.

“Then hyung, does that mean I can give you all the forehead kisses you want if I have to take care of you?” he asks, round, adorable eyes shining curiously.

Soobin sputters. Why do they have to talk about the forehead kiss a month later? Why not never?

“T-that was just an accident! I was high on adrenaline and I wasn’t thinking straight and-” he trails off in mumbles, too flustered to make coherent words.

Beomgyu just giggles, and moves to cup Soobin’s face in his hands so the latter won’t get a chance to avert his gaze like he usually would.

“Stop panicking, dummy. I didn’t hate it. You know what this means right?”

Soobin can’t think, but feels his heart beat faster at the words, and just blinks owlishly at the younger.

Beomgyu scoffs at the lack of response and tilts the older’s head at just the right angle to press his own lips on Soobin’s forehead.

“We’re both meant to be, being dense clueless idiots like this. What I mean, from one dense idiot to another, is that I also would’ve kissed you right there and then, because the only thing I regretted if we both got into an accident was not confessing to you,” Beomgyu admits with so much rawness and sincerity lacing his tone that it took Soobin’s breath away.

He doesn’t know what to focus on; Beomgyu’s confession, Beomgyu’s smile, Beomgyu’s eyes, Beomgyu’s _everything._

So on impulse, he instead focuses on tilting his own body to avoid straining the other, and brings their face even closer, heat radiating from the both of them and their breaths mingling with one another.

“Then,” Soobin asks, still trying to put one and one together. “You wouldn’t mind if I kissed you right now because of the crush I’ve had on you for a whole year?”

Beomgyu playfully bumps their noses together.

“Soobin-ah, be my guest,” he replies, and Soobin shudders at the other unconsciously dropping honorifics with him.

It felt right, for some reason.

“Besides,” Beomgyu says as the older closes the distance between them. “I’ve liked you for just as long.”

* * *

When Yeonjun barges into Soobin and Beomgyu’s room because they were running late for the hospital appointment, his complaints die in his throat as he takes in the sight before him.

The two boys were crammed onto the same bed, but they weren’t in an uncomfortable position. Slotting perfectly against each other, Beomgyu is nearly engulfed by Soobin’s entire body, as if protecting him from something. In between them, their hands were intertwined with each other, and letting go seemed impossible to happen anytime soon.

Toto is perched on the headrest, looking curiously but not making an attempt to wake either boy up. It was as if he knew better than to disturb them.

Yeonjun just smiles knowingly at the bird and puts a hand to his lips to tell him to keep quiet.

The blond leaves to gather the other dorm mates to share his suspicions to which Hueningkai shares his conversation he shared with the brunet and they all do a small victory dance in the living room.

After that, Taehyun calls the hospital and convinces the reception desk to move Beomgyu’s appointment in the afternoon.

The newly formed couple should wake up to a pleasant morning in each other’s arms, shouldn’t they?

(Well, if your definition of pleasant was in the form of morning kisses and complaining about morning breath, but continue to kiss some more, then that’s what exactly happened two hours later.)

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time joining an exchange fic event so i’m a bit nervous ><
> 
> to ara, the creator of this lovely prompt, i hope you enjoyed reading! i had fun writing this fic for the past few months <3
> 
> to the organizer of this event, thank you for this amazing opportunity! i hope to join more of your lovely projects in the future <33
> 
> and to the rest of the readers, please do leave comments and kudos and read the other works in this collection as well! writers love feedback and i’m sure all the works posted are worth reading <333
> 
> afterword over! have a lovely rest of the day or night ^_^


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